Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Los Angeles, California- 2002

Will Graham stood in the hallway of the bedroom that was the crime scene. The victim lay on the floor while Zeller took his photos. The rest of the team was searching the house for evidence. All of this was background noise to Will, as he stared, transfixed, at the crude doll- one of the four on each of the walls- that had been nailed across from the door.

"Victim is Believe Bridesmaid, the owner of the house," Zeller reported to Will. "Preliminary cause of death is that he was strangled and the wounds on his chest are post mortem. The lack of defensive wounds or signs of a struggle leads me to believe that he was drugged, but I still have to confirm that."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Will replied. 

"One more thing, the LAPD cop who found the body said that the door was locked from the inside when he arrived to do the welfare check."

"A locked room?" Will asked, incredulously. "Like from a novel? The few times something like that happened in real life, it was to make the murder look like a suicide. Which it obviously can't be here."

"That's why they called us in. Well that, and the dolls."

"Do you know anything about them?"

"No, not yet. For all we know, they could have belonged to the victim."

Will nodded.

"So...I'm gonna leave and let you do your thing, that's what happens right?" Zeller, and the rest of the investigators that worked with the BAU still didn't trust Will. And he didn't blame them. Jack just pulled him in, a weird homicide detective from Louisiana and enrolled him at the FBI academy. Then, after he failed the psychological screening, pulled strings to get him to crime scenes as a consultant. But hopefully, a few more cases and they'd start to see his abilities as reliable and real.

Will nodded in reply, and when Zeller left the room, he closed the door and locked himself inside using the latch. It just felt right, this was a locked room mystery. 

On instinct, he squatted so that the doll across from him was eye level. Again, it just felt right. Will took in the room before him and tried to imagine how it looked before the murder. Create a vision behind his eyes as vivid as the one in front.

I don't know the victim, but he fits my needs. I..... He doesn't see me coming..... I drug him and take out a length of tubing and strangle him. There is satisfaction in watching..... This is acceptable because..... Now that he is dead I take off his shirt and carve my message. ........ I do this because...... This is-

The image shattered. Will gasped. This had never happened before. The unknowns, there were so many. That they were glaring, rather than blending into the scenario like they should. What made this different? Why did it feel like instead of seeing the outline of the killer, all he saw was a large shadow-  the kind a movie monster leaves before the big reveal?

Shaking, Will walked over to the body and unbuttoned the bloodstained shirt. The whole shirt. The killer had unbuttoned it, made his marks, and then put it back on. Even if Zeller had rebuttoned it for some reason, the shirt wouldn't have been stained the way it was.

Bridesmaid's chest was crossed with various slashes, mostly straight. It only took a few moments to realize it was a series of numbers in Roman numerals. But it would take a bit longer to find the breaks.

I make the marks. I've already determined what the contents will be by ....... I don't need to bring a scrap of note paper to remind me. .....the bookshelf....

Another half vision. So this killer liked to leave their messages as ciphers, to flaunt their intelligence over the police. Will glanced at the crowded bookshelf, mostly full of manga. They'll have to involve Cryptography. Killers like this didn't expect their messages to be deciphered until it was too late, so there was a good chance the message contained vital information. 

"You want to know the weird part?" Price said to the usual group (Beverly, Zeller, Jack, and Will) as they assembled in the LAPD morgue around Believe Bridesmaid's body.

"Other than the victim's name?" Beverly joked. 

"Well that too, I still don't understand why anyone saddled with the surname 'Bridesmaid' would name their son 'Believe' of all things. Anyway, there were no fingerprints in the house. I don't mean the killer didn't leave fingerprints. He wiped down the entire house afterwards. On a lark one of my boys checked a lightbulb, and that was clean."

"Will," Jack said, turning to him. Clearly, he was expected to explain what such a thing meant when it came to the personality of the killer.

"Well, between that and his message, the killer clearly sees himself as more intelligent than us, and they want to brag about it," Will struggled to speak to his co-workers, people that anyone else would have considered their friends by now. And really, he didn't feel confident about what he was saying the excessive cleaning meant. "They're not a sadist. They just want to prove they can get away with murder, even when dallying long enough to clean the house. A germaphobe wouldn't be able to cut into someone's chest the way the killer did."

Jack nodded, but Will feared that he could tell how unbalanced the crime scene had left him. 

"I identified the dolls," Beverly said to fill the silence, "They're Wara Ningyo- Japanese curse dolls. Well they can also be protective wards, but clearly the killer was going for the evil ritual application. For that, they need to be constructed with something belonging to the victim- which they weren't. They were  cheap store bought ones. And then driven through with a nail, which did happen."

"So the killer is Japanese?" Jack asked.

"Even if they are," Will said, finally feeling in his flow, "they're not well connected with their culture if they mixed up the protective and curse varieties. So they could just be a fan of Japanese culture, like the victim was. That's a connection." He didn't feel comfortable mentioning that he felt like the killer didn't know the victim, what with how unstable his scenarios were.

"Well, since we don't have any leads," Jack ordered, "The next steps will be the boring obvious ones. Work with the LAPD to question everyone Bridesmaid knew, interview the owners of shops that sell Wara Ningyo, etc. And we hope Cryptography can crack the code." 

Everyone nodded, and filed out of the morgue. Except for Will, he remained leaning against the wall. Thankfully, Jack didn't notice.

Why did it even bother him so much? He'd never made wrong assumptions in his scenarios before, even when he couldn't step back and explain how the evidence led him to those conclusions. And of course they contained gaps. But these were glaring. Will had caught prideful killers before, those trying to get  away with the perfect crime. They didn't dwarf him like this. And what did that mean? How hard would it make this killer to catch?

I crush the girl's skull with one blow, she is too drugged to struggle.....I poke out her eyes....she is turned over to her stomach, the acceptable replacement. I clean the room, and unconcerned by the corpse I must step over, I hang up the Wara Ningyo. ......when I am done, the room is locked. I clean the rest of the dorm room, a much easier task than before. ....should take the bait soon, this is-

Once again, Will was thrown out of his scenario as it fell apart. Himself again, Will's stomach dropped as disgust boiled in his throat. It was always cases like this, with children as the victims- especially girls- that threw him off. Especially this one, a life already so saturated by misfortune before its tragic end. Still, there was no sense about why the killer felt this was okay. No solipsism, the regarding of some lives as lesser, the possessiveness that often drove the murder of women, belief in an afterlife, or the simply not caring of a true psychopath. He could sense none of the common justifications killers used.

"Will, what do you have?" Jack urged. The apartment, a student dorm, turned into a home for a mother and her daughter was just too small to give Will his usual privacy.

"Uh, there-" Will struggled to put his thoughts- typically flashes of stimuli- into words while he tried to hide that his ability was faltering. "There will be at least two more murders, possibly a third- before the killer goes dormant. The dolls-" Will pointed to the three that were in the room this time. "Are counting down. The question is if it's counting to one or zero." 

"The killer is also targeting people with alliterative names," Beverly chimed in, "Believe Bridesmaid, Quarter Queen. The mother is coming down to the station for official identification soon, but no one else who lives on the floor has said that they recognize Bridesmaid, so it seems like their names might be the only connection. But the odds of someone having an alliterative name, isn't it one is twenty six? That's a lot of people if we're talking LA."

"Well no," Will corrected, "I can't give you an actual number, but people will be less inclined to give their child an alliterative name. Besides the killer might only be targeting people with weird alliterative names, not your Peter Parkers."

"Will," Jack interrupted, breaking from his own musings. "Do you think the killer left a message this time?"

"Not the kind of message that can be decoded. But this is for someone- all of this is."

"Will, can you join me outside?" It wasn't a question.

Jack and Will shuffled out of the apartment and into the hallway, leaving the investigators to complete their work.

"There's something different about this case," Jack stage-whispered, "Something is happening with your abilities. You need to tell me."

Will rubbed his eyes with his palm. "My scenarios, somehow, they're incomplete. There's something different about this killer. They're operating on a  completely different kind of- perspective or something. There are so many unknowns, and they stand out more than normal."

"So the thing about the killer doing this for someone? Do you trust that?"

Will closed his eyes, trying to renter the scenario, but he couldn't. After failing, he spoke. "I want to. I also think that there was something about this  victim that made her not the killer's first choice. But it's like an excerpt from a book. The words might be correct, but omission can lead to the wrong impression."

"Has something like this ever happened before?"

"No. When I first started, my scenarios weren't as clear as they are now. But they've never been broken like this."

"Do you know what this means? Does the killer have some undiscovered condition? Is he a super genius?"

"I don't know, Jack," Will replied more forcefully than he meant to. "I don't know, okay."

"Looks like the alliteration theory is back on the table," Zeller announced as he strode into the morgue. There had been a third murder, this time of a  bank clerk named Victoria Falkner. 

Once again, Will's scenario had been a tortured thing, trying to come to life. The main impression he was able to glean this time was of emotions. Victoria's murder, with her stolen arm and amputated leg, had been a failed experiment. She'd died of blood loss, not shock. She'd been unconscious like the rest of the victims. Despite the failure, for some reason the end result was still acceptable. But that brought Will no closer to classifying this killer. They already knew he was intelligent and saw killing as a game. 

"Victoria Falkner," Zeller continued to his coworkers as he threw an open folder in front of Beverly's workspace. "was born Backyard Bottomslash. She changed her name when she turned eighteen, for obvious reasons."

"Maybe the real crime here is all these parents inflicting these kinds of names on their children," Price joked, to no response.

"So what kind of people would know Victoria's birth name?" Jack asked.

"Well obviously she could have told anyone she knew personally, or even a stranger while she was drunk at a bar. But officially, there aren't any documents under the name Bottomslash. She even got her high school diploma amended. No one's made a public record request recently either."

"It also doesn't make much sense for the killer to choose someone whose alliterative birth name is hidden," Will added, "All these killings, they're a  message- they're a puzzle. We're not the intended recipients, that has to be the case now. And the names of the victims are a part of it."

"But we solved that challenge easily enough," Beverly countered, "Even if Cryptography hasn't gotten anywhere with anything else. A civilian would also be able to look up  Victoria's birth name, and anyone would see the pattern with the first two victims."

Will nodded his reply. Beverly made a good point. Still the oddities in this case would not stop bothering in. It was like something trapped under his skin that he needed to scratch out and crush between his fingertips. 

In the end, none of that mattered. On August 22nd, Jack was summoned to LA General Hospital. They had in their burn ward a man who another FBI agent had arrested for the three murders that had occurred so far, Rue Ryuzaki. Except, outside of Jack's team, there were no other FBI agents currently active in LA. But when an agent on leave catches a serial killer, certain crimes can be ignored.

"So, how did you do it?"

Naomi Misora whipped around, her muscles tense. She had been observing Ryuzaki in the burn ward, at least for tonight. The doctor had said that he would  most likely survive, all thanks to her efforts. He couldn't be handcuffed to the bed, so it felt right to watch him through the observation window. Even if an LAPD officer already stood outside the door.

The man who had spoken had brown hair and seemed to hide within his jacket- a bold choice for the Californian summer. Even when she turned around, he only looked in her direction, rather than make eye contact.

"Excuse me?" Misora asked, "Do what?"

"Catch the killer. The FBI was at a complete loss. But for some reason you were in the right place at the right time."

"I don't think I'm allowed to tell you."

"I'm part of Jack Crawford's team."

Misora noted how the man didn't say that he was FBI. She had heard gossip about Crawford having some kind of pet profiler who was too unstable to be an actual agent. With the way this man seemed to struggle to hold a conversation, he seemed to fit the bill. Screw it, she wanted to be able to talk about this with someone who wouldn't be critical of her bending of the law, and L wasn't picking up.

"I figured out how he locked the rooms," she replied. "Ryuzaki had presented himself as a private detective helping me in my investigation. I thought we had found two potential victims, so we sent them away and stayed in their place on the proper date. But while I was waiting, I figured out that the killer used the nails in the Wara Ningyo dolls to create a pulley system to lock the doors with. But it couldn't be done with just one nail. Ryuzaki was going to commit suicide and lead us to believe that the killer had immolated him. But to what end?"

"To leave the story unfinished," the man mumbled to himself. 

He spoke up. "And the message at the first crime scene, did you figure it out?" 

"In a sense, but I had help. Ryuzaki was dragging me along, making it seem like I was helping him solve each message he left at the crime scene. That way I would think that we had actually figured out where the murderer would strike next, just with two possible victims. Crawford asked me to write a proper report, you can read the details later." 

She sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the sense of failure still haunting her. "I just regret that I didn't arrest him at the first crime scene. That's what my instincts were telling me- he was just so creepy."

"How so?"

Misora relayed every detail that had unnerved her when she first met Ryuzaki to the man, while he listened intently. When she was done, he finally spoke. "If you had arrested him then, you would have been acting based on irrationality- perhaps even bigotry. Other than storing his lunch in the victim's fridge, none of Ryuzaki's behaviors were that of an intelligent psychopath. They act in a socially accepted manner around others, so that they can better gain power and hide in plain sight. The only crime you had evidence he had committed was trespassing, which you were also doing."

There was something about the way this man talked that reminded Misora not just of Ryuzaki, but also of L. 

"I suppose you're right. And it's not like he killed anyone after L brought me on the case."

"You were in contact with L?" The man almost sounded angry. Everyone with even the most casual interest in true crime knew who L was, but that wasn't the reaction she expected.

"He was the reason I was even involved," she replied, taking a step back, "It was how I got access to the crime scene photos and police reports. L knew the killer as someone named B, but he had no idea he was Ryuzaki."

"Th-thank you," the man replied. He started to stride away. Despite his distress, it was clear that Misora was unwelcome to intervene. 

Well, a final weird experience to round out the day.

Will strode out of the hospital. It was stupid. Why did he now think that, since L had personally requested him for his most recent case in America, he was now the enigmatic detective's liaison or something? It wasn't like he'd ever had any kind of private conversation with the man. He just impressed him so much during the Midnight Murders that L asked for him when he worked on the Smiles case. Still it felt like betrayal.

Ugh. He just needed to take his rental car back to the hotel and get some sleep before their flight left for Virginia.

"Will Graham?"

Will turned at the sound of his name. The person who had spoken was leaning against the outside wall of the hospital, half in shadow.

"Yes." he replied, while wishing he was allowed to carry a gun.

The man stepped fully into the yellow glow of the street lamp, revealing that he was comically non-threatening. He was lanky, but hunched over so much he seemed short. The fact he wore what looked like pajamas, the dark circles under his eyes, and his unkempt black hair generally contributed to the effect that he had just gotten out of bed. Yet for some reason, Will felt an instant kinship with this stranger.

"Skittle?" The man offered, holding out the open king-sized bag of skittles he had been eating from. He stared at Will with eyes so dark they seemed to be all pupil.

"Uh, no thank you."

"Your loss," he replied with a shrug. He carefully took a single skittle from the bag for himself and ate it. Will noted that despite his propensity for staring, he seemed more responsive to Will's own non-verbal attempts at avoiding eye contact than most people. They fell into conversing while both looking out at the hospital parking lot.

After the second it took to finish eating the skittle, the stranger spoke. "I must apologize for how I didn't involve you in this case, and instead turned to Agent Misora. Do not take it as me lacking confidence in your skills."

"You- you're L." In the two cases Will had worked with L, he was nothing more than a voice coming through a computer or phone that displayed his calligraphic symbol. Will didn't have a strong mental image of L before now, but it certainly wasn't of someone who looked more at home in their mother's basement playing CRPGs. 

"I would prefer if you didn't advertise that I’m here to keep an eye on B until the matter is resolved.”

"Misora said that you knew who the killer was all along," Will himself was surprised about how accusatory he sounded. "But you didn't come to the police about it."

L was unfazed. "By the time I was aware of the murderers, all three had already been committed. Going to the police wouldn't have improved the situation. I still didn't know who the targets were or where to find B. But I knew what the crimes were. They were a detective war between B and myself.  It was an...internal affair. In fact, that was why I didn't go to you. You are a master of motive and identification. I couldn't let my investigation get bogged down in what I already knew. Agent Misora is quite the skilled investigator, I expected her to be able to follow B's clues with my assistance. The idea that B would present himself to my proxy as an ally was something I hadn't considered. In fact, she is the reason that I won the contest, instead of B."

"Because she figured out the Wara Ningyo were fulcrums. I'm still not sure how that could work."

"Another reason why you weren't the proper choice. But don't trouble yourself," L continued, reacting to the nonexistent inferiority he assumed Will felt at such a judgement. "Such mechanical trickery is typically the domain of heists, rather than murders."

"So," Things were finally starting to click in place. Will's jagged scenarios had less missing pieces. "B would have killed himself. The killings would stop and the case would go cold. But you'd never be able to figure out where B escaped to or how he locked the doors, because your base assumptions were false."

"Very good." L pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pant's pocket and handed it to Will. "When you ran 'Ryuzaki's' dental records to identify the charred corpse, you would have found this. His legal name was Beyond Birthday, consistent with the theory of the crime regarding who B targeted. A name B never shared with us. Of course, the dental appointment a few days before the first murder is the only actual legal record of Beyond Birthday. All of the corroborating documents were expertly forged. Still I believe it's the name he would like to be known as, so he should be tried under it."

Will accepted the folded documents and put them in his own jacket pocket. He had a pretty good idea now why Misora was able to get their reports from L and why L never needed to be sent any file, as long as it was digitized. "Speaking of the trial, if you know all this stuff about B- about Beyond, you  should testify at it. I know you have your whole secrecy thing, but the legality of the evidence is going to be pretty complicated and the judge could always agree to seal the proceedings. You could even testify remotely.”

"Oh, convicting B won't be a problem," L spoke with total confidence, "He'll confess to it with pride. One suggestion though, don't allow him to negotiate anything less than a maximum security prison. He knows he's lost this bout, but that doesn't mean he'll never want a rematch."

Will nodded. Really, he just didn't feel like pressing the issue. But he still had another question. "My abilities, you know the profiling scenarios?"

"Yes. They’re quite intriguing. Thank you for describing them in detail to me when we worked together."

"Well, everything was off when I tried to create scenarios for Beyond's murderers. They just wouldn't come together, and the gaps screamed."

"I'd wait for more evidence before you believe that you're losing your touch. B is a very unique situation. These murders were a product of the...environment we were both raised in, a cultural context no textbook could have told you about. You might struggle like this more often if you went international. In addition, even in a neurodiverse environment, B was unusual to a degree no one else was." L punctuated his statement by eating another skittle.

Will desperately wanted to ask about what kind of place L had been raised in, but he already knew that L had carefully weighed telling him just that little bit. When the conversation had first begun, L was still enigmatic. Despite his dislike of social situations, Will was highly adept at reading people even when they were actually in the room. In just a short time, he had acclimated to L's odd posture and intonation.

"Your abilities," L said, when he finished eating, "are actually something else I wanted to talk to you about. You're a vital tool in the FBI's serial killer catching repertoire. If something were to befall you, the length of time an American serial killer would remain uncaught would increase by several months, with many escaping entirely- based on my analysis. Therefore, the most logical course of action for a prospective killer would be to kill you  first. Does Agent Crawford have someone with similar capabilities waiting in the wings?"

Will was taken aback. And the most surprising part wasn't how his own morality was being shoved under his nose, but in what high regard L- the century's greatest detective- held his abilities in. "I mean, there are other profilers in the FBI. But the scenarios, it's just a way to guide my deduction. Just because other people don't conceptualize it the same way doesn't mean they're not as good."

"Your record would beg to differ. Still, that's a shame. If you would like a successor, I believe I know someone who has the potential if you were to take her as a protegee. She is a high-empathy autistic like you, and has been in the consideration to be my successor. However, she has fallen behind the other candidates in large data processing and computer skills. She is a teenager, but she would never have been a candidate if she wasn't mature. I think she could learn a lot from you."

What the hell kind of 'environment' did L come from? There was no way he'd subject a child to the kind of life he was living, not the nightmares or even what he saw when he closed his eyes. And there was no world where Jack would approve it. Not to mention the fact that people usually asked if he was on the spectrum, where he gave his usual answer. L had the gall to proclaim him autistic, but without the scorn one would expect. 

L took Will's stunned silence as refusal. "Well if you ever change your mind Mr. Graham," L pulled out a blank business card with a phone number hand written on it. "Take this if you ever change your mind. I hope to have the fortune to work with you again soon."

With that, L ambled away. Will watched in fascination until the man turned a corner.

He looked down at the phone number. He'd give Jack the dental records and what L told him about the killer, but not the card. He didn't want to give Jack the option in case of his own death. This burden must forever remain his alone to bear.

Chapter Text

Wolf Trap, Virginia- 2003

Will Graham scanned the files Jack was able to get him. They were the FBI's list of all of this week's Kira victims inside the United States, which was supposed to be sent to L. He'd been to the crime scene of one of Kira's victims, if you could call it that. And he got nothing, of course. However Kira was killing these people, he had to be doing it remotely. But maybe, just maybe, he could enter a trance by trying to create a scenario by pretending to be Kira. Despite the international nature of the case, L still had yet to contact him. Will just had to do something.

He glanced at the first page of the report. He'd already been over it, in fact he'd analyzed every single American Kira victim and came to some conclusions of his own about what kind of vigilante Kira was. His eyes fell on the name 'Christopher Gardner'. He was jailed for the attempted murder and sexual assault of his girlfriend.

Turning to his computer, Will searched the man's name, and read the first result- a news article from a respectable newspaper talking about his conviction. What he had done to his girlfriend would have best been described as torture, culminating in the removal of her eyes. Only by chance had she survived.  The procesuctor also wanted to charge him with the murder of a few other young women, but their investigations were handled so badly in was impossible. He got a sentence of several decades instead of death. 

Except, because of Kira, that had changed.

No , Will thought, However Kira kills, this isn't how he finds his victims. He can't search for their names first. He has to start with something that collects news stories of criminals.

Will pressed the back button and returned to the search results. The second one was TattleCrime.com . The name sounded familiar, he thought he remembered some of his students disparaging it as a tabloid. He clicked the result and skimmed the article. The accuracy of the extra information didn't matter to him, what he was curious about was how TattleCrime organized their site. 

There- at the bottom. Like someone's personal blog, the tabloid tagged their articles. Just as he expected, by clicking the 'Criminals' tag, he was taken to a list of all of their articles where the perpetrator was known, or at least accused. Maybe Kira used this to get names, and then checked the cases on more traditional news sites, but it would be through true crime sites organized like this that he found his victims. 

Will lowered himself into Kira's morality, into his maxims of justice and punishment. He closed his eyes, and then opened them, two swings of the pendulum later.

I browse TattleCrime.com , by now even my righteous anger has been tempered by boredom. A headline catches my eye 'Serial Killer Only Convicted of Attempted Murder'. I read the article, scoffing at the overdramatic prose. But the simple facts are clear, a killer has escaped justice due to the bumbling of the police. I shall rectify that. I.....................!

"Agh!" Will clutched his head as the scenario shattered. The quick jolt of pain was gone, however it had left behind a tiredness that carved out a home in his skull.

"What the hell?" Will said to himself, as he rubbed his eyes. Sure he hadn't actually investigated a case in six months, but nothing had ever been as bad as this. Not even the Wara Ningyo case, with its broken scenarios. This must be what happened when you try to create a scenario without knowing the murder weapon, but why did it have to be so painful? 

Will turned away from his desk as he heard the clicking of Buster's nails on the floor. The dog, seemingly awoken by Will's cries- in spite of his best efforts to stay quiet- padded over to his human.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I woke you up," Will whispered, hoping he hadn't awoken the rest of his dogs. Buster rested his chin on Will's thigh, clearly sensing his distress. Will respond by petting him behind the ear. 

With the feeling of Buster's fur as an anchor, Will began to feel more stable. Alright, that didn't work, but I do think I've figured out some things about who Kira targets. That should be useful. I guess I have to...

Will opened one of his desk draws, revealing a stack of various papers. He'd always been bad at organizing, hence why the FBI was responsible for evidence, not him. This was the extent of his personal archive, he guessed you'd called it. 

He rooted around in it. The process disturbed Buster enough that the dog, satisfied that he had done his duty, decided to leave. Will was glad. He knew the dogs didn't understand any of it, but for some reason, it never felt right discussing work around them. 

Will pulled out the blank business card L had written his number on. It had the UK's international prefix and Winchester's area code, but Will was sure L had things in place to make sure the call would reach him wherever he was. As for time zones, while L certainly looked like he barely slept, Will had no idea what the man’s actual sleep schedule was or where he currently was. He'd just have to hope. If L didn't pick up, his plan was to call him midday tomorrow. As for the fact L said that the number was in case he changed his mind about a protegee, surely he wouldn't mind if he gave insight on the Kira case instead.

He dialed the phone number on his flip-phone, hating the fact that his hands shook in the process. The phone rang, and for a moment Will heard the distinct sound of someone picking up, and then transferring him- without saying a word. Then, after another second, L picked up.

"Mr. Graham ," L said, his usual voice modulator in effect, "I s this about the protegee? I've heard you're teaching now, but I would like her to have more of a practical education ."

L knew he wasn't a special agent anymore? Somehow, that was embarrassing. With all those things L had said about his importance, did that mean his predictions about serial killers becoming more effective came true? Did he think Will was evading his moral duty? "And your predictions, did they come true? Is the FBI worse at catching serial killers without me?"

"I slightly underestimated the abilities of the rest of the FBI, but yes, they have become less effective at catching killers. However, you haven't been teaching long enough, so it is still unclear if all profilers will be superior as a result- making this scenario preferable to your death. For the rest of the country I mean. But the simple fact is, if you lack the mental and emotional fortitude to be a detective, then remaining the kind of detective you were is beyond your abilities. It is folly to think that force of will is enough to make everyone suitable for every role. " Once again, Will didn't sense superiority from L, like he'd expect when most people said something like that. Instead, even through the voice filter, he knew it derived from a quiet respect of the differences among people. 

"Uh, thank you then- I guess. But, this isn't about getting a protegee. I still don't want one, it's-"

"Then it's about the Kira case. This time, I didn't contact you because of your retirement. And even if you were still active, the crime scenes are  inconsequential- even to you, and the profiling is simple. Kira is obviously a vigilante."

"Yes but," Will spoke with the excited desperation of a kid who had the perfect answer to a teacher's question, "I've looked over Kira's American victims and I've come to some conclusions about his sense of justice. I'm also pretty sure he isn't in America."

"Oh, do explain, " L's response was cold, even for him, but Will didn't notice.

"Well to start, what Kira considers a crime is separate from what the law considers a crime. Not just that he's literally Draconian and punishes everything with death, but not a single person who Kira has killed has only been convicted of drug crimes." 

"This is consistent with other countries. He won't kill those imprisoned for political opposition, heresy, sodomy, or adultery in countries where those are crimes. What else?" L sounded like a teacher, guiding along a student to the correct answer, which led Will to the sinking suspicion that he already knew all this. But he also felt proud that Will found the correct answer.

"He doesn't have qualms about killing those awaiting trial. I've also noticed a tendency to go for more sensational crimes, as opposed to serious ones. So a serial kidnapper over a one-time murderer. This is part of why I think he doesn't live in the US. He can only get our news from things that are reported internationally or by paper big enough to have an online presence. I- I tried to do a scenario of him killing, but it broke really badly because I couldn't even guess at how he kills them. But I used an English language true crime website to simulate him finding his victims. It might mean that he knows English very well, or I made that assumption myself and covered it up. I've never made false assumptions before, but this time there are so many unknowns."

"I trust your visions, and they don't seem to let you make up things your subconscious doesn't believe to be true. Kira's victims are also disproportionately from Japan and English speaking countries. I believe Japanese and English are the only two languages he knows. I would like to hear the rest of why you think Kira isn't American."

"Well no single state's death row been completely cleared out, nor has the federal one. Kira isn't going on a crusade against a specific type of crime he  sees society as too weak against- like organized crime or white collar crime. So the first place to start would be death row. That information is publicly available, either from public records or from anti-death penalty organizations. But it isn't online. Instead, Kira has to work off online news articles. And if Kira was so paranoid about getting caught he'd avoid showing preference to a specific state, while we still can't figure out how he's killing them- well he just wouldn't use his weapon at all."

"Very good, Mr. Graham. I can confirm for you that Kira is in the Kanto region of Japan. The actual first Kira death was that of a man who was holding elementary school hostage. Despite lacking any cardiovascular conditions, he miraculously died of a heart attack- resolving the situation. This was only ever reported in Japan, so I had a death row inmate pretend to be me and address Kira on a supposed world-wide broadcast. In reality, it was actually only prefecture wide and I was planning to broadcast to each one, until he died. It's actually quite impressive you were able to figure it out just by looking at his victims. "

Will was shocked, and despite himself a little impressed, at L's ruthlessness. "One last thing, I think we might be missing some Kira victims. Some other patterns I've noticed is that Kira doesn't avoid killing people who are awaiting trial. He also shows a preference for people who've gotten reduced sentences because of plea bargains and white-collar criminals who the public has criticized as getting off lightly because of their wealth and connections. We could be missing a lot of people, like those who got not-guilty verdicts that Kira thinks are guilty, people out on parole or ex-cons, or less publicized white collar criminals who only paid fines instead of jail time. Or what if he starts enforcing international law? Or punishing things that are immoral but not yet illegal?"

"I actually haven't thought about that, and a lot of my deductions rely on accurate records on the victims. What do you propose? " L sounded legitimately surprised.

Will actually hadn't expected to tell L something he didn't already know. Well, he supposed he did, given that he was calling him. But he guessed a part  of him never considered that a serious possibility, let alone that L would ask him for advice. "Uh, I guess hospitals and each country's equivalent of a medical examiner should be instructed to alert the authorities whenever someone dies of a heart attack, unless they were super high risk. Then the authorities run a background check, and if any of what I outlined comes up, they should be added to the Kira count. "

"Very well, I'll make some more concrete guidelines and inform each country in their morning. " Holy shit, L was actually taking his advice? On the two cases he’d worked with L before, he listened to what Will reported from his scenarios, demanding a more detailed account than Jack ever did. But it was L who made the deduction then. 

"One last thing ," L said, " Kira seems to be acting based on confidential information regarding the NPA's investigation. I need an independent investigation force to surveil the officers and their families. I was wondering if you could propose this to the FBI. They will likely be more amenable if it comes from within instead of directly from me. "

"You want me to what?" Will couldn't stop himself from laughing at the absurdity of the idea, "I think you have the wrong idea about how much the feds  actually like me. And you want them to investigate Japanese cops? Why not ask the Japanese government for a separate team of investigators to investigate the ones you have?"

"I can't risk Kira finding out about the investigation, nor those under said investigation. Kira might have a connection to the second task force, or  the operatives in the second task force might feel bound by their cultural loyalty. Besides, the United States' track record when it comes to respecting the sovereignty of other nations is far from perfect. "

"Alright, how about this: I'll talk to Jack- he still likes me. He's a department head. He can talk to- I guess the head of Counterintelligence will have the agents and wherewithal you need- he can talk to them as a peer. That might work."

"Excellent. I'll send Agent Crawford the means for the agents to communicate with me. Oh, and if that approach doesn't work, convince someone in the Bureau who has CIA connections. History shows that the CIA pays no consideration to the sovereignty of other nations. "

And with that, L hung up.

A month later, when the news of the agents', as well as Naomi Misora's, deaths reached Will, he couldn't help but feel like he was responsible. 

Wolf Trap, Virginia, 2013

Will tore through the papers of his desk drawer, throwing them to the side. He pulled out L's business card, and sunk to the floor as he dialed the number. He prayed it still worked, even after almost ten years. After the two rings, he was met by a modulated voice.

"Will Graham, correct? " L said.

"Yeah, listen. I know, I'm sorry, this still isn't about the protegee- it's just...things have been happening and you're the only person I can think of."

L replied with a sound of acknowledgement, garbled by the filter into static.

"I've been having hallucinations- blacking out- losing time. I'm- I'm a field agent again. I'm worried that the killers I've been imagining, that they've somehow stayed with me, or that I'm in danger of becoming them. You know that Nietzsche quote? I think it's Nietzsche- ' be careful when hunting monsters, that you don't become one yourself ,’ or something like that. But for me, it's not about ends justifying the means, it's about how I empathize with killers, how I put myself into the shoes of the worst humanity has to offer."

Even as Will poured everything out to L, grateful to finally have someone to talk to that wasn't personally involved with his life, he still felt like his hold on reality was a tenuous one. He wasn't currently hallucinating (that he knew of), but it felt like the only thing keeping him tether to reality was a  rope he had to hold with his raw and aching hands. 

"Was this why you retired and became a teacher? " 

"Yes, no, I'm not sure. Yeah the scenarios were getting to me, as was the stress- that if I failed people would die. But it was never like this. It was  horror, reactions to trauma, that kind of stuff. Not hallucinations."

"So why did you come back? "

"There was this case, these young girls getting abducted all across Minnesota. Jack was at a loss, so he convinced me to come back. And- I killed someone. I'd- I'd never done that before, it was the killer. And afterwards, I felt like I couldn't stop. I'd broken a seal, blood was on my hands. So I rejoined Jack's team. I had a physiatrist- well really a therapist- now. He was willing to rubberstamp the official stuff, and he's trying to keep me grounded, but he's at a loss when it comes to the hallucinations."

"Who is this physiatrist? "

"Uh, Hannibal Lector."

L paused for just a moment too long, before replying "Interesting. "

"Well ," L continued, " Even if you could allow yourself to stop, it wouldn't be right. If you have the ability to help others, you must use it, even if it uses you for fuel. Every killer you catch, you save at least their next intended target. By simple egalitarianism and math, solving two cases is worth the cost of your life. The only concern is if the killers you create in your mind might actually subsume your personality. "

For a moment, the undulations of Will's world settled with the thrill of figuring something out. "You- you're not L."

"What makes you think that? " The voice that passed themselves off as L replied, suddenly harsh.

"You- you when I talked to L at the start of the Kira case, he respected my decision to retire from active duty. He said that being able to endure detective work is a requirement for being a good detective. You, whoever you are- you're willing to let me die as one."

There was no response. Will took the phone away from his ear so he could watch the call timer count up. Five seconds later, 'L' replied.

"I now see why L held you in such high regard, Will Graham. You are correct. I am the person L chose as his successor. I'm sure he at least made reference to such a program when debriefing you on B or when he offered you a 'protegee' ?"

Will nodded, before remembering this was a call and replying "Yes." Both L and this successor had such presence over the phone, you could end up forgetting that fact.

"You may call me Near. Regretfully, L was murdered by Kira in late 2004. As for which course of action is more moral, feel free to subscribe to either L's philosophy or my own. "

"Now to the matter of your issue ," Near continued, " Surely Dr. Lector has explored a neurological basis for your problem? Other than drug usage, that's generally what causes sudden psychosis in adults. "

"He has, but my MRI was normal. And my neurologist is dead- it's kind of a long story."

"I believe that's what second opinions and other kinds of tests are for."

"Ugh," Will put his phone on speaker and dropped it on the floor, "Hannibal thinks that it's mental illness, which it really seems like it is. The hallucinations started after I killed Hobbes and have been pretty thematically coherent."

"At least that means it won't directly kill you, or progress to the point where it's too late for easy treatment to work. That won't mean all hope is lost. There are still drugs for it. However, there's another possibility I want to put forth. You'll probably be inclined to dismiss it out of hand at first, but I need you to understand, that even if my hypothesis is false- everything I'm going to tell you will be true. "

What the hell? What kind of theory could Near put forth that would require a preamble like that? "Alright, shoot."

"This information was never released to the public, but the way Kira killed people was through a notebook- I promise this leads to something- these artifacts, known as 'Death Notes', seem to derive their power, or are at least tied to a species of beings known as Shinigami. One of their traits is that they can see the true name and lifespan of any human they look at. This power can be given to a human in exchange for half of that human's remaining life ."

Well it seemed like 'magic and evil spirits are real' is something that would require that kind of disclaimer. How the hell did Near expect Will to believe this? Yet, even with the instinct that someone was manipulating Will, why would it be Near? And if it was Near, he wouldn't do it with something that required an adjustment of what one believed was real. And Kira's ability to kill was inexplicable, so perhaps the only thing that could explain it was a supernatural explanation.

"However a....an associate of mine determined that this is not the only way. Beyond Birthday was born with the Eyes of a Shinigami. He believed a Shinigami left it as a boon for a random human to pick up, the same way the Death Note was, I disagree. But that doesn't matter. What this means is that people can be born, even if very rarely, with the abilities of a Shinigami. I had to destroy Kira's Death Notes when he was caught, so I didn't get the chance to learn more about Shinigami. But their very nature is intertwined with death, perhaps they have the ability to see how someone died, from the perspective of their killer. Your abilities to border on the unexplainable. Your psychosis could be a confusing of time, rather than reality, as you come into your powers. "

"Beyond...the reason why he killed those people," Will spoke in a stage-whisper, like what he was going to ask was taboo. "Was it because he had Shinigami powers?"

"That wasn't his only motivation ," Near was oblivious  to the fear behind the question, " But it was likely how he justified it, he only killed those with lifespans that were about to end anyway. "

"Alright, but do you even know for certain that Shinigami could do what I do?"

"That's the question. It's entirely possible that they don't. Your powers are right on the border of what an exceptional person could do within the bounds of reality as we understand it. Although, I have an idea for how to begin to test them ."

"Yes?" Will grasped Near's stoic statement like a drowning man grabs a life-raft. If he really was half-Shinigami or whatever and  (he knew that the full weight of what Near had told him had yet to register), sure if would deny him any course of treatment or a roadmap for his decline. But he would know. Could the Hobbes that haunted him actually be the man's soul, rather than a copy of the man his mind dreamed up?

"First, on your next case you should try to see an event from the perspective of a victim. If you can do that, it doesn't confirm that your abilities are natural. But it doesn't make sense for you to be unable to imagine things only as the killer. So if you can't, it would make more sense for it to be a power. Secondly, I must insist that you take on the protegee L recommended. I believe he meant a young woman I know as Vivid, I don't know what she goes by now. She's probably in academia somewhere. If you can train her to create scenarios just like you can, then your powers cannot be inborn. Of course, if she can't, that doesn't necessarily mean they're inborn. She simply might not have the potential to learn the ability that L believed her to have. Although, skills aren't binary, and even if she's worse at it than you, it would still disprove my hypothesis. Naturally, you should still seek medical treatment while you train her ." 

When Near mentioned Vivid, the face Will saw in his mind was that of Abigail Hobbes. No of course not, if she saw a teen when he talked to L she'd be in her early 20s now- like Miriam Lass. Or Georgia Madchen. Those women were all he could think of when considering Near's offer. He couldn't do that. He couldn't bring in another young woman, who had escaped the private burden of whatever Will, L, and Near were and try to make her one. "I can't do that. I won't ever take on an apprentice."

"Well then, that's all the advice I can give. Although if another Death Note appears in the human realm soon, I'll try to interrogate the Shinigami tied to it, in case they know something. " Will couldn't tell if Near was making a dry joke or was completely serious. " One last thing, do not contact me using this number again. If you change your mind about the protegee, and only if, go to Whammy's House in Winchester, England. Tell the caretaker that you have been sent by Near, the third second L. Remember- third second. That will verify your intentions. "

And just like with L, Near hung up without the social frippery of saying goodbye. That was fine. Will didn't care for those kinds of things either.

Really, Near's hypothesis didn't matter. Because soon, it all came crashing down. Gideon's escape had too many victims and too much pressure for him to consider attempting to see it from any of their perspectives. Then, the encephalitis reached its apex, and he brought a man who wasn't there to Hannibal's table. At least in the hospital he had plenty of time to think about the truth regarding Kira. 

When investigating Georgia's own brutal death, he remembered what Near had suggested. It was seeing from her perspective, and sensing the curiosity that preceded the fear and pain that convinced Will that it was murder. So both possibilities remained, but now that it seemed the encephalitis was the  cause of his psychosis, he didn't know which one he wanted to be true. 

All that fell away as he put together the pieces of the twisted tapestry that had eluded him these past months. Even as his senses once again fell from him, he knew. He was certain of one fact-

The Copycat Killer, the Chesapeake Ripper, and the murderer of Abigail Hobbs- it was all Hannibal Lector. 

He told as much to Brauer. Naturally, Will rejected every lawyer the FBI sent him. But Brauer, apparently, came from Near. That was the only person Will could imagine Mihael Keehl being. Who else would hire a lawyer for him? But Brauer just boredly nodded along to his frantic accusations. Will didn't even know if he was able to pass on a message to Near.

Still, he made a note of the quiet, pale-haired young man who was in the audience for his trial.